A 16-YEAR-OLD Vietnamese boy charged with producing cannabis has denied the charge on the basis that he was forced under threat of violence into acting as a ‘gardener’.
Gareth Price, defending, told Blackburn magistrates the boy had been transported in a lorry to England from Vietnam and during the four months he had lived here had spent some time looking after a cannabis crop at a house.
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The house was in a town he didn’t even know the name of, the court heard.
“He was left at the house in Blackburn with instructions to water the plants and threats of violence if he tried to leave,” said Mr Price.
“This is a young man who doesn’t speak any English, in a strange country with no family or friends who we say did what he did because he was frightened.”
The boy pleaded not guilty to producing cannabis and abstracting electricity.
He was remanded in the care of the local authority until a trial is held.
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